The MixUp
by DancinTiff
Summary: Bella and Emmett get a phone call that could lead to a big change in their lives. One-shot I do not own Twilight or any of the characters.


"Mr. and Mrs. Cullen. Thank you for coming in on such short notice."

"What's this about, Dr. Gentry?" my husband asked.

"Have a seat and I'll get straight to the point," he waited as we got situated, "Two days ago, a surrogate gave birth to a healthy little boy. However, it quickly became obvious that the child was not the biological child of the birthparents. They like yourselves have embryos stored at our facility and had one of those embryos implanted into a chosen surrogate. Unfortunately, it appears there has been a mix up and the wrong embryo was implanted. While reviewing records, we have narrowed down the possible birthparents to two couples." He stopped speaking and let what he had just said sink in.

My husband quickly squeezed my hand that he had taken as we entered the office. "I'm going to assume that since we are here that we are one of those couples. I wouldn't think it would be good for business to inform many people of this mix-up."

"Well, yes. The numbers on your embryos are simply one number off from that of the incorrect parents. We are hopeful this was the problem. I can assure you that all parties involved have been put on leave and a thorough investigation is taking place. Our process will be overhauled to make certain this type of mix-up never happens again."

I cleared my throat, "What do you need from us? Why has it taken two days for this discussion to happen? It's imperative for babies to have interaction and bonding time during the first few days of life. This poor little boy is not being allowed to do that."

"We've been working around the clock to sort this out. I assure you we contacted you and the other couple as quickly as possible. Now the other couple has already consented and given DNA so we can find out who the biological parents are of this boy. All I need from you is a swab from each of your cheeks. Within a couple of hours, we will have the results and the rightful parents will have a new baby boy."

He said it so flippantly, like this was an everyday occurrence. Yes, I wake up each day with the possibility I might have a newborn. Not likely, considering I couldn't even carry my own child, thus our need for the embryos and surrogates. The trauma that took place when I was ten caused irreparable damage and they had to remove my uterus. I still had my ovaries, which I meant I had eggs. Unfortunately, I had no oven to cook said eggs.

"Whatever you need." Emmett, my wonderful husband, responded to the frazzled doctor. Dr. Gentry simply nodded and went to his office door. He returned with a young man in a lab coat. This man simply sat down the box, which looked similar to my father's tackle box, he was carrying. He opened it, pulled out some tubes, put on gloves, and turned to us.

"I'm Ben. I'm going to swab each of your cheeks then put them into the tubes here. They are labeled with your names," he held up the tubes that were clearly marked with each of our names, "I am personally taking these down to the lab, where I will begin the process of solving the parentage of baby boy doe. Rest assured there will be no mix-ups today."

We both nodded. He grabbed a giant q-tip from this box, walked to Emmett, and once he opened his mouth, quickly rubbed the q-tip thing inside his cheek. He turned and immediately placed it in the tube marked with Emmett's name on it. He grabbed another q-tip and turned to me. I allowed him to swab my cheek as he had my husband's and watched him place it into my tube.

"The process should take 2-3 hours. I will double check everything just to be certain. Do you have any questions for me?"

"I do," I spoke up, "Why did you need to swab both of us? Wouldn't just one of us suffice?"

Ben quickly glanced at Dr. Gentry, who closed his eyes with a pained expression, but nodded nonetheless. "We want to be certain there have not been any other mix-ups along the way."

"Meaning what?" Emmett was growing frustrated by the lack of straight forward answers.

"Meaning, we want to be certain that when the embryo was created that the correct sperm and eggs were put together. We need to be certain that both parents match or we could be in for a whole mess of problems."

My mouth hung open with this news. They could have matched my eggs with someone else's sperm or taken Emmett's sperm and someone else's eggs together. The thought made my stomach roll. It could be possible that I have a child with some strange man I had never met or my husband could have a child with some unknown woman.

"Are you insane? How can you act like this isn't a big deal? This is huge. Do you understand the number of lawsuits your office will be facing if this has happened?"

"Mr. Cullen I assure you we are not taking this lightly. We understand the magnitude of this situation. We are just trying to fix things the best we can," Dr. Gentry was trying to calm my bear of a husband, while Ben quietly left the room.

Suddenly a horrible thought struck me. "Our girls!" I shrieked. Four years ago we had gone through the process to create the embryos that were the main part of this dilemma. We had one implanted into our surrogate and it had split after implantation. We had beautiful twin daughters, who were getting ready to celebrate their third birthday. What if there had been a mix-up? What if they weren't ours? Or what if only one of us was the biological parent? Things started getting fuzzy and I was having trouble breathing.

Strong arms wrapped around me. "Breathe, Bella. Match your breathing to mine sweetie. In, out. In, out. Good. Keep it up." Emmett was my rock. He had helped me through so much over the years. He had quickly learned to calm me when I started getting worked up. With my eyes closed, I leaned further into his chest. Taking deep breathes until my breathing was once again regulated. A gentle kiss was placed on my head before I was lifted and placed back into my chair. I hadn't even been aware I had left said chair, but obviously I had. Emmett scooted his chair as close to mine as possible and wrapped his arm around me. Keeping me grounded, reminding me he was there.

"Bella," Dr. Gentry quietly began, "I can assure you that your twins are both yours and Emmett's. We changed systems 18 months ago. That is when the problems occurred. Your girls were obviously conceived and born prior to that. As you know, we do thorough blood work on every baby that is born here, to insure their health. We would have noticed if their DNA did not match either of yours."

I let out the breath I had been holding since he began speaking. DNA or biological make-up, whatever you want to call it, don't matter to me. I love my son Noah the same way I love my girls even though biologically he isn't mine. I would love those girls no matter what, but I feared having them taken from me.

"Okay. Like Ben said, the process should take 2-3 hours. We will call you when the results are back and we'll have you come back in to hear those results. Feel free to walk around here or leave the grounds, either way we will contact you as soon as we can."

Emmett and I walked from the office, tightly holding on to each other. We walked to the elevator and without thought we ended up in the cafeteria. Emmett sat me at a table before going through the line. He returned quickly sitting a large cup of cherry soda in front of me as he sat in the chair across the small table. He reached for my hand and I squeezed it tightly.

"Emmett, Bella. What are you doing here? You look like you're in shock. Oh, no. Are the kids alright? Your brothers, sisters, Cooper?" Dr. Carlisle Cullen was the head of pediatrics at the hospital, but he was also a very concerned father and grandfather.

"Dad, calm down. Everyone is fine as far as I know. Mom, Rose, and Ali have the girls and Noah is at school," Emmett explained. "Dr. Gentry called and asked for us to come in to his office this morning. He had some very surprising news and we just left there. We are kind of in shock, I guess."

Carlisle's brow furrowed before a look of understanding crossed his face. "You're one of the potentials? Oh, goodness. Why wouldn't they have told me that? It would have been easier coming from me than that old coot," he seemed to be talking to himself as he shook his head in disdain.

"You knew?" my voice was rough with emotion. "You knew this had happened, didn't you? How could you not tell us?"

"Bella, sweetheart, I did know of the mix-up, but I was not aware he might be yours. You know if I had any idea I would have told you immediately. The first I knew of you guys being potential parents was a few minutes ago," he clarified as he sat in the chair next to me. "Wow. This is crazy. Have you seen him yet?"

"No. We don't know if he's ours yet," said Emmett. "We are just going to hang around here until they call us. They said it should take 2-3 hours. I don't think we could stand to leave, just in case." He looked at me for confirmation as he said this. I nodded and tried to smile.

"Alright. Well, I'm around. If you want me to be close by, just send me a text. Love you both." Carlisle walked away while looking at his pager. His step quickened at the doors.

We sat together quietly sipping our drinks. Our hands clutched together on the tabletop. My brain felt like it was about to explode with all the information we had gained this morning. I was trying to process it all, but at the same time I knew that if I made it that far I would start imagining he was ours. I didn't want to get my hopes up only to be let down again. When our drinks were gone, we silently stood. We wandered around the main level of the hospital. My arm looped through Emmett's and my head resting on his bicep.

Emmett broke our silence a while later, "Well, this is not what I was expecting when we got the phone call this morning."

"What were you expecting?" I asked.

"I don't know. Just not a possible baby. Like you said, this isn't something that happens every day. Noah will be ecstatic. He has wanted a little brother for years. Remember how he told us to take the girls back and get a boy when we brought them home."

"Emmett, don't. We can't think of him as ours yet. He might not be. Then we'll be upset. It's best just to keep the idea at bay until we know."

"Babe, we're going to have to think about it. If he is, we need to have arrangements made. He's two days old. He'll be ready to go home. If he isn't, then at least we were prepared. We wouldn't be looked at as incompetent parents for not preparing for a baby."

"Nobody will look at us that way. This was just sprung on us. I just…" I stopped walking. "I can't get attached. Knowing that none of this would be happening if… I can't get my hopes up," I finally stuttered out.

I was engulfed in the protective arms of the man I love. "Don't start. None of this is your fault. What happened to you wasn't your fault. It was over 16 years ago, you were a little girl. Besides can you imagine not having Emma and Carlie? We probably wouldn't have them if things were different. Shoot, we wouldn't have met. I hate that it happened to you, but I can't hate that it brought you here to me."

Tears streamed down my face. His was the voice of reason. He and our children were everything to me. I couldn't change the past and in some ways, he was right, I wouldn't want our lives to change.

"I love you, E. So much." I leaned up to peck a kiss on his chin. He bent forward and captured my lips. It wasn't a passionate kiss, just one to show our love.

"I love you too, B." He smiled his dimpled smile. The first I had seen since we entered Dr. Gentry's office. I tried to smile back, although I think it came out as more of a grimace. Together we turned and started walking.

Sometime later, we had made it to the third floor. Emmett's phone rang. He glanced at it then looked around quickly for someplace to answer. He darted into a waiting room and answered. He looked up at me and I motioned to show him which way I would be when he was finished. He grinned and nodded his head. I continued down the hall on my own not paying attention where I was going. Then I came to a wall of windows. The nursery. I took a deep breath and stepped up to the nearest window.

There were only a three babies in the room. I figured most were with their mothers, as it was the middle of the day. One of those babies could be mine. I looked closer. One of the babies had a pink hat on indicating she was not a possible candidate. The other two however were wearing blue hats. I moved to the left to get a closer look at the two baby boys. Was one of those babies mine? Would he be coming home with us? Questions were swirling around in my head. A nurse entered and spoke to the nurse that was already in the nursery. She came forward, looked at the tag on the bassinet, and then rolled one of the boys out of the room. Leaning in, almost touching my head to the glass, I could read the tag on the other boy's bed. Baby Boy Doe.

A tapping on the window caught my attention. The nurse was standing there. She pointed at him and gave me a questioning look. I shrugged my shoulders, tears filling me eyes. Giving me a sympathetic look, she turned and moved his little bassinet closer to the window. Carefully, she lifted him up. I gasped when I saw his tiny face. Yes, he was beautiful, but it was like looking at a miniature version of Emmett.

"Whoa," Emmett said, his hand on the small of my back, "I shall call him mini-me." He obviously saw the same resemblance I did.

I put my hand to my mouth to hold back a sob. I couldn't get attached. There was still a chance he wasn't ours. The nurse smiled at us before lowering him back into the bassinet. She quickly walked back to answer a phone that was lighting up as it rang.

I don't know how long we stood there, staring at him, before Carlisle found us. He needed Emmett to come with him for a few minutes, but Emmett didn't want to leave me.

"I'm fine. Go. Help your dad then come back to me," I told him sternly. He smirked at me before replying, "Yes, ma'am." They walked away leaving me staring once again.

A little while later, I decided I should walk away. I took one last look at him and walked back to the waiting room where Emmett had gone earlier to answer his phone. I sat in one of the chairs, gazing out at the lake the hospital sits by. The sun was shining; a rare occurrence, but it didn't match my mood. I wondered what the other woman was thinking. This might be her son. Do they have other children? Would this be their first? Question after question shot through my mind.

"Bella," I heard my name, but it seemed far away. "Bella!" The voice was closer. "Bella, where are you?" I looked up as Emmett walked pass the door. I stumbled to get out of the chair. As quickly as I could, I ran to the door.

"Emmett," I said, loud enough he could hear me down the hall. He spun around quickly. I saw him breathe a sigh of relief before jogging back to me. He wrapped his arms around me tightly.

"Where were you? I came back after I helped dad and you were gone. I thought you might have kept walking, but I made it to the elevators and still didn't find you. I was so worried. I know this is really stressful. I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."

I giggled. "Since when are you a worrier. I thought that was my job. I was in the waiting room. I must have fallen asleep. How long were you with your dad?"

"It took longer than expected. Sorry." He didn't get a chance to continue because once again his phone rang. He looked at the caller ID, grabbed my hand, and pulled me back into the waiting room. He quickly brought the phone up to his ear. I looked at him curiously. He pulled the phone from his ear and put it back into his pocket.

"They have the results. They'd like us to come back to Dr. Gentry's office." We stared at each other for a moment before heading toward the elevator. It felt like it took forever to go up 2 floors. The hallway seemed longer as we walked. Finally, we reached the office. I saw Carlisle standing next to the door. He squeezed my shoulder and gave me a small smile as we went through the doorway.

Earlier, it had just been Dr. Gentry, Ben, and the two of us. Now, it seemed like the office was filled to the brim. Several men in suits stood behind the desk, Dr. Gentry and Ben stood to the side, a man and woman sat in the chairs, and now we filled in the back part of the office. One of the suited men looked at Dr. Gentry, who nodded.

He stepped closer to the desk. "It seems we are all here. I want to thank you for your patience. I know it must have been a very difficult few hours. The board and I hope you understand this has never happened before and to the best of our ability will never happen again. We will be making changes and new procedures will be put in place to assure it doesn't. Now I'm sure you don't want to listen to me. Dr. Gentry would you like to share the results?"

Dr. Gentry looked at the couple sitting in the chairs and at us. He was holding a piece of paper in his hand. He stepped forward and cleared his throat. "Yes, the results were double checked to be certain. I know this is very trying on all of you. I've worked with all of you to help you get babies in the past and I know this boy would be blessed to have either couple as his parents," he glanced down at the paper in his hand once again. "Based on the swabs completed in this office, the results are 99.99% that the baby boy was created from the Cullen's embryo. Congratulations Emmett and Bella. You have a son."

He continued talking, but I wasn't listening. He was ours. The baby boy I had watched for most of the afternoon was ours. I felt myself be lifted into a big hug by Emmett as he laughed. I smiled my first real smile since entering this building. Hugging myself tighter to my husband, I buried my face in his neck. "He's ours," I whispered.

I walked in a daze back to the windows I had spent the afternoon. Esme, Emmett's mom, was standing there with a confused look on her face. At her feet sat one of our old car seats that had been in the storage closet of their house since the girls outgrew the baby seats. There was a sack on top of it.

"What is going on? Carlisle called me a while ago and told me to grab the car seat and a couple of outfits for a baby boy from the storage. He said to bring it here. I don't understand what in the world is happening." I rushed forward and hugged her to me. She wrapped her arms around me, but I knew she was looking at Emmett and Carlisle who had just walked up.

"I'm sorry, sweetie. I just thought you'd want to be here to meet your grandson," Carlisle said with a small smile.

"Huh?"

I giggled. Emmett pulled me back to his arms as his father explained the whole messed up situation to his wife. The same nurse who had held him up to the window earlier was wheeling a bassinet out the door. She smiled at us before coming to a stop in front of Emmett and me.

"I hear you are this little buddle of joy's parents. By looks alone they should have figured that one out. As soon as you walked up, I knew he had to be yours. He is the spitting image of his daddy."

Emmett's smile widened. So did mine. She carefully lifted him from the bassinet and laid him in my arms. There is nothing more precious than holding your child for the first time. Seeing his face, smelling the baby smell, feeling his weight in my arms. His eyes slowly blinked open. They were the blue all babies' eyes start off with, but I had to wonder if they would turn brown like mine or if they would lighten to the beautiful shade of blue of his father's eyes.

"Hi baby boy. I'm your mommy. I'm sorry it took us a while to meet, but I promise you'll never be alone again. You have a big brother and two big sisters that are going to drive you crazy with all their attention. You're going to be spoiled rotten by your uncles, aunts, and grandparents. Plus you get the handsome looks of your amazing daddy." I turned my head to look at Emmett. He smiled again as I placed our son into his arms. Our son, that sounded so perfect.


End file.
